Fire At Mumbai ED Office: Potential Loss Of Investigation Records Under Evaluation
Mumbai: A fire broke out in early Sunday morning in the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) zone-1 office located in Ballard Estate, south Mumbai and continued for over 10 hours.
As per the reports, it has been feared that investigation documents related to several high-profile cases including those of fugitive businessmen Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi, along with politicians Chhagan Bhujbal and Anil Deshmukh, might have been lost in the fire.
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Major damage was reported to office infrastructure, including computers and documentation. The full extent of the damage is currently being assessed. Though both physical and digital records of investigations were stored at the office, since most of the documents were digitised, the agency may be able to recover them, sources told the Times of India.
In the court, the probe agency has submitted the original investigation records of cases in which chargesheets have been filed, holding the copies with himself. The fire incident may also impact questioning of scheduled witnesses at ED’s office.
According to the fire department, the fire broke out around 2.30am. At that time, only the canteen staff and security personnel were present in the building. No casualties were reported.
The fire department said that the fire was limited to the the probe agency’s wooden furniture and other office infrastructure. Their operations got disrupted by the furniture placed in the common passage and the balcony.
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“We could not enter the premises due to heavy smoke and heat. Besides, the building only has a single staircase as it is old. A large number of papers/documents, besides wooden furniture, fuelled the fire. The attic did not have much ventilation,” TOI reported, an official as saying.
The fire was finally extinguished by noon, and there were reports that it may have been caused by a short circuit.
